Water nears Four Corners

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Monday, April 25, 2005

Twenty-one years later, a United Water Co. water line is approaching the Brookfield border from New Milford on Route 7. If the state, Brookfield and New Milford agree, that line could continue across the border and provide the Four Corners area with the first clean drinking water it's had in 27 years.
"The problem with the water is pretty clear. We can't drink it. We haven't been able to drink it for 20 years," said Betty Hensal, a Brookfield Realtor who owns property on Federal Road near the Four Corners. "We drink bottled water. We make our coffee out of bottled water. We eat on plastic plates and use plastic forks and knives so we don't have to wash them."
The problem started when environmental officials discovered a dry cleaning company polluted one neighborhood's drinking water with solvents at Station Road and Laurel Hill. Wells for 19 homes were declared undrinkable. Then it was determined four gas stations at the Four Corners had further polluted groundwater with MTBE, a gas additive that is difficult to eliminate from water.
"The solution is to bring in fresh water," said Ivan Park, chairman of Brookfield's Economic Development Commission of Brookfield.
The fresh water will come from an extension of a line United Water of Connecticut is building to the Faith Church, the huge new complex on Route 7 not far north of the Four Corners.
United Water provides water to 14,000 customers in New Milford, Newtown and Woodbury. The firm is a subsidiary of the Suez Group, which is an industrial and service company specializing in public utilities.
"Getting the line to the Faith Church was the big break-through," said Danbury lawyer Ted Backer, who represents United Water.
The line, when it reaches the Four Corners, will also improve firefighting capabilities along the road.
Both the state Department of Health and the state Department of Public Utility Control, which oversee water supplies in the state, supported running the line to the Faith Church.
"They realized getting the water down to the Faith Church could potentially resolve a two-decades-old problem in Brookfield," Backer said.
United Water still needs to get excavation permits from New Milford and Brookfield. and further approvals from the state Department of Public Utility Control. Brookfield Water Co., which owns the right to supply water to the Four Corners area, will also have to sign off on the deal
"Any water company who enters the Four Corners area has to do business with Brookfield Water Co.," said Brookfield Realtor Paul Scalzo, who has been organizing local business owners to find a solution to the water problem.
But Park and others said they are confident the United Water line will be extended and solve the long-standing problem.
Representatives from Brookfield Water did not return phone calls Monday.
Nearly 50 business owners along Federal Road are raising money to bring the line from the Brookfield line through Four Corners. The line could cost $1.5 million.
"You could say it could be done in late summer or early fall," Park said. "That's a realistic target. It's a two-month construction project."